Magnetic materials are well known in the art. Many of these materials are relatively inexpensive iron based alloys that can be permanently magnetized and then utilized as magnets to provide attraction or repellant magnetic forces in a wide variety of articles and devices. Other alloys are also known. One particular conventional alloy known as Alnico contains iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), aluminum (Al) and cobalt (Co), while another, known as Vicalloy, includes Fe, Co and Vanadium (V). One typical use of magnets is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,980 wherein inner and outer samarium (Sm)—Co magnets are used to impart sliding movement to a component of the device, while another use of such magnets is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,811.
Most of the current applications for magnets in jewelry items are generally for simple attachment of two components so that the item can be attached to clothing or ear piercing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. Re-35,511 discloses the use of common magnets to join two separate portions of an earring together (see FIG. 10), while U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,282,760 and 5,921,110 disclose using complementary magnets for attaching jewelry items to each other and to support devices, particularly for attachment of the items to clothing.
Traditionally, fine jewelry pieces are made of valuable precious metals or alloy materials thereof These materials are based on gold, silver, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and lustrous alloys of these materials. Certain alloys may be heat-treated to increase strength or hardness, but generally these alloys are not magnetized. Certain of these alloys have no magnetic properties at all while the magnetic properties of others have not been utilized in fine jewelry pieces.
Magnetic alloys are very atomically structured and are inherently brittle. When magnetic alloys are thin, they are fragile. Small, thin components for jewelry made from magnets, including known precious metal magnets are too brittle for everyday use for jewelry. In fact, for jewelry, only thick magnetic parts have been inlayed or set in place in jewelry to utilize the forces from their magnetic fields. Consequently, magnetic alloys have very limited, non-aesthetic uses in jewelry applications. And while there have been precious metal magnetic materials, they have not been applied to fine jewelry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,048 discloses that a known precious metal magnet of platinum-cobalt (Pt—Co) has equal atomic amounts of Pt and Co (representing about 77 weight percent Pt and 23 weight percent Co), but rejected its use stating that is has “little value” in jewelry because its Pt content is below 85 weight percent. To make a jewelry component, their resolution of the problem was to add gold (Au) to form a ternary Au—Pt—Co alloy that contains 50 to 75% Au, 12 to 42% Pt and 2 to 15% Co. Also, small amounts of Fe, Ni, copper (Cu), palladium (Pd), and silver (Ag) can be added to modify the properties of the ternary alloy. It was suggested that the resultant alloy material could be formed into a chain that can be magnetized in the direction of its thickness.
The magnetic properties of other alloys that contain precious metals have been investigated in a number of patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,615 discloses soft-magnetic (i.e., non-permanent magnet) Pt—Co alloy products. U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,458 discloses a magnetic material consisting essentially of 40 to 60 atomic percent Pt, 45 to 55 atomic percent Co, and between 4 and 15 atomic percent iron alone or with up to 5 atomic percent Ni, and optionally with up to 5 atomic percent Cu. U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,230 discloses magnetic alloys formed from Pt, Co, and Boron (B). U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,373 discloses a permanent magnetic alloy comprising 15-40 atomic percent Pt, 5-35 atomic percent Au and 40 atomic percent Fe. U.S. Pat. No. 3,755,796 discloses Co alloys that contain one of arsenic (As), germanium (Ge), indium (In), osmium (Os), Pt, rhodium (Ro), rhenium (Rh), ruthenium (Ru), silicon (Si), or Ag. U.S. Pat. No. 3,444,012 discloses Pt—Fe alloys that contain Co, Ni, H, Au, Ag, Cu, Iridium (Ir), Os, Pd, or Rh can be heat treated to provide magnetic properties, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,441 discloses permanent magnets of Pt—Fe alloys. U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,290 discloses a magneto-optical layer of a Pt-manganese-antimony alloy. U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,946 discloses magnetic Pt—Ni and Pt—Ni—Co alloys. U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,233 discloses permanent magnets of Sm—Co—Cu—Fe that also contain zirconium, titanium, hafnium, tantalum, niobium, and vanadium. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,410 discloses hard (or permanent) magnetic alloys of Fe, Co or Ni, with a rare earth element and B. In these patents, however, none of the properties or usefulness of these alloys for jewelry applications was investigated or discussed.
Also, while British patent GB-1,067,054 discloses various heat treatments for Pt—Co alloys, it does not discloses any uses of such heat-treated materials in jewelry applications.
The present inventor has found that there is a need for new fine jewelry items that have unique properties and ornamental appearances, and that he has discovered new uses for certain known precious metal alloys for this need.